soul food (chapter 2 of tao te ching – translated by ursula le guin)

Everybody on earth knowing

that beauty is beautiful

makes ugliness.

 

Everybody knowing

that goodness is good

makes wickedness.

 

For being and nonbeing

arise together;

hard and easy

complete each other;

long and short

shape each other;

note and voice

make the music together;

before and after

follow each other.

 

That’s why the wise soul

does without doing,

teaches without talking.

The things of this world

exist, they are;

you can’t refuse them.

 

To bear and not to own;

to act and not lay claim;

to do the work and let it go:

for just letting it go

is what makes it stay.